This narrow apartment, in which one can hardly stand erect, is the dining room, parlor, and bedroom, kitchen and pantry of the whole family. Of furniture there is none. The ground, covered with birch boughs, is chair, table,

5 cupboard, floor, and bed. In the day the occupants squat around the fire, eating, drinking, or working, and during the night they huddle around it. Undressing at night or toilet in the morning are things unknown to the mountain Lapp. He sleeps all the winter and part of the

summer in his dress, in the winter in skin with the hair inwards. The entire family lives in one small tent; there is no room for proper washing. Even if he were clean, he would in a few moments become dirty from the smoke, soot, and dust.

When a tent is occupied by half a dozen people, there is indeed not much room to spare; the air is filled with smoke, and is, therefore, not what might be called pure, particularly as the tent is shared by three or four dogs.

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It is obvious that life in such a tent is not very refined 10 or well regulated. There are no fixed meals, for the members of the family have to take their turns in guarding the reindeer. A large kettle hangs always over the fire, and when a Lapp wants to eat he dips his hand into the pot, and fetches out a choice morsel of meat, which he 15 devours with the aid of the long sheath knife carried by his side, the fingers serving as fork. A visitor to the

land of the Lapps must not be too dainty.

The stay of the Lapp in a certain place depends on many things, as, for instance, the richness of the reindeer 20 moss or the presence of wolves; but it is seldom that he remains quiet in the same spot for more than three or four days. Then he can rest no longer, but moves the tent at least a couple of miles away. The goods are gathered together and carried in the winter in pulks, but in the 25 summer, with far greater difficulty, on the back of the reindeer to the next camping place.

The life of these nomad Lapps is closely connected with the mountain, the desert, and the free open air. Here, only here, is his true home. The blue sky and the mountain air he has breathed from his birth become 5 a necessity to his nature as he grows up. The Lapp passes almost his entire life in the open air, and his tent does not even protect him against the autumn rain, the winter snow, or the spring storms. Sometimes the rain floods his tent or the snow envelops it, and sometimes the 10 wind levels it with the ground. But still the snowy desert his chosen home, and it is only here that he can be studied and judged with justice.

- SOPHUS TROMHOLT: Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis.

Oral Composition. - Describe the dwelling of the Lapp, and his dress, and tell something about his mode of life.

Written Composition. 1. Write a short composition on Traveling in Different Countries, by means of the reindeer in Lapland; dogs and sledges among the Eskimos; the camel in the desert; the elephant in India; etc.

Select two or three of these methods and describe them. Tell why each is best in the country where it is used.

You might "make believe" that you have taken a trip around the world and have tried these and other curious methods of traveling. Tell which you enjoyed most and why.

Spelling. Reindeer, animals, experience, sleigh, question, guiding, families, exciting, circumstance, recollections, existence, autumn, height, knowledge, capsize.

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THE PASSENGER PIGEON

THE passenger pigeon, or, as it is usually named in America, the wild pigeon, moves with great rapidity, propelling itself by quickly repeated flaps of the wings, which it brings more or less near to the body, according to the degree of swiftness which is required. Its great power 5 of flight enables it to pass over an astonishing space in a very short time. This is proved by facts well known in America. Thus, pigeons have been killed in the neighborhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which they must have collected in the fields of Georgia and 10 Carolina, these districts being the nearest in which they could possibly have procured a supply of that kind of food. As they can digest food entirely in twelve hours, they must, in this case, have traveled between three hundred and four hundred miles in six hours, which shows 15 their speed to be at an average about one mile in a minute. A speed such as this would enable one of these birds, were it so inclined, to visit the European continent in less than three days.

They have also great power of vision, which enables 20 them, as they travel at that swift rate, to inspect the country below, and discover their food readily. This I have also proved to be the case by having observed them, when passing over a sterile part of the country, or one

scantily furnished with food suited to them, keep high in the air, so as to enable them to survey hundreds of acres at once. On the contrary, when the land is richly covered with food, they fly low, in order to discover the part most 5 plentifully supplied.

Their body is of a long, oval form, steered by a long, well-plumed tail, and propelled by well-set wings, the muscles of which are large and powerful for the size of the bird. When one is seen gliding through the woods and close 10 to the observer, it passes like a thought, and on trying to see it again, the eye searches in vain; the bird is gone.

The multitude of wild pigeons in our woods is astonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I even now feel inclined to 15 pause, and assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons who, like myself, were struck dumb with

amazement.

In the autumn of 1813 I left my house at Henderson, 20 on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens, a few miles beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast to southwest, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, and wishing to count the flocks that 25 might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that